With trees shedding leaves and skies casting a noticeably darker haze over the Custard Factory, Supersonic rolls into town for its latest instalment, this time casting a notably darker ambience across proceedings. With the festival shunting itself into October this time around, its acts seemingly followed suit into a realm of knowingly bleak approximation.

No doubt about it, Zebrahead are here to have a good time tonight as they bring a slice of Californian sunshine and their own blend of pop-hip-hop-rap-punk-rock to a very wet and miserable Birmingham.

There has been an issue collecting my ticket for the show, which luckily, after 20 minutes, was resolved by the accommodating duty manager for the venue, to whom I am very grateful. This in turn meant I only caught the last segment of Steel Panther's set another reason to be very grateful for all the ticket palaver. It maybe that I am in dire need of a humour transplant but I don't get the attraction of Steel Panther; however I am fully aware that I am in the minority considering the audience's response this evening..

The last time I was at The Barfly’s basement venue, it was hot. Real hot. Today, my phone was telling me it was 3° in Birmingham. My phone was lying to me. It was way colder... Let’s hope that the bands can warm me up tonight...

This year's widely anticipated V Festival came aggressively straight for us. With her guns blazing, she blew away anyone who was lucky enough to get in to the 60,000 capacity arena. The success of the weekend truly rested on one act and their extraordinary ability to put on the most intense and simply awesome performance you may of ever witnessed.

Friday You have to hand it to the lovely people from Capsule - They know how to throw one hell of a festival, but, perhaps more importantly, they know how to throw a festival unlike any other. Supersonic is unique for all kinds of reasons, but mainly due to the experimental diversity and adventurous eclecticism of its line-up. Over a 3-day weekend you are guaranteed to see many bands and artists you probably haven't heard of before but all will undoubtedly get a reaction from you. In the festival program words such as "spazzy", "doom" and "intense" crop up regularly when describing the bands playing throughout the weekend. Friday night's line-up includes the penultimate live appearance of Cutting Pink With Knives who go out in style bringing the party to the people and spending most of their short set rubbing sweaty shoulders with the crowd. They're followed by the shocking wake-up call of Rolo Tomassi whose disjointed, edgy hardcore draws you in like an old friend before spitting venom in your eyes. Vocalist Eva Spence plays the psycho girl-next-door card to perfection and is mesmerizing to watch. By complete contrast, local boys PCM bring some dark and heavy drum & bass to the table, climaxing with a guest appearance from Bolt Thrower's Karl Willetts who dubs the collaboration "the sound of death metal drum & bass". Dälek and his DJ, Oktopus finish the evening with the densest, darkest hip-hop you're likely to hear in a long time. P Diddy would be running scared. Monstrous! Saturday As I arrived at the Custard Factory, Cath and Phil Tyler were midway through a gentle set which, by it's calmness, sounded quite at odds with most other bands I'd be hearing over the weekend. Nominally a folk duo but sounding as far from the nu/alt-folk movement as possible, Cath and Phil's stubborn traditionalism and earthy themes of life, death and drama sat just fine ...

The Glastonbury coverage was making me feel a little jealous so an escape to Cannock Forest (sited on Cannock Chase - owner of the dubious title of 'smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on mainland Britain') was very welcome. Making use of a natural bowl, many took the chance to have a nice sit-down from a good vantage point while checking out the support. Playing when I arrived were Noah & The Whale - among the leading lights of the new folk scene. Garbed mainly in yellow and blue, their upbeat, bluegrass-y, sunshine melodies suited the occasion nicely, although singer Charlie often sounds a little like his cat's just been run over which dampens the jauntiness a little. Next up, was Fionn Regan. The Irish singer/songwriter was accompanied throughout most of his set by a guitarist and drummer, although they departed briefly to allow a few songs to be done solo. Again, it was a pleasant-enough set and stepped up the rockiness from the opening act. That said, without previously being a Regan fan none of the songs stuck with me much - critical acclaim for his debut suggests I need to sit down and give him a proper listen. Until this point the majority of the crowd had been happy sitting and enjoying the surroundings in the late-evening sun. There was no particular hurry for the main act to appear and, with a fair number of families in attendance, there was a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. When The Zutons hit the stage, to swirling lights and the sound of tablas, everyone took to their feet. The band kicked off with 'Zuton Fever' and 'Don't Ever Think (Too Much)' and followed with a setlist that covered material from all three studio albums. The show's highlight was the two-pronged attack of 'Valerie' (with tongue-in-cheek shout out to Mark Ronson) and 'Always Right Behind You', the latter of which provoked the whole field into dancing and shaking - and that's no exaggeration; turning round to see everyone on the slopes towards the back of the field moving to the music was an impressive ...